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The Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC) revealed that about 100 fake professors were discovered in the university system. Academics across the country expressed their surprise by asking for concrete evidence. However, according to a Ph.D. student at the Nasarawa State University, the revelation by the NUC Secretary may be targeting the hundreds of professors parading themselves in government offices who have not conducted any research or teaching in the last 20 years.

Nigerian universities have been accused of under-reporting the number of students and hiring professors already employed in other universities. They wanted to convince the National Universities Commission (NUC) that they have sufficient staff to meet master/student ratio requirements and maintain their program accreditation. Another issue raised in the NUC review process is the practice of sending lecturers to monitor activities in their own areas of study. This has led the lecturers to compromise on standards to favour their colleagues who may also then be sent to accredit programmes in their schools.

The Commissioner for Education, Science and Culture says there are three major kinds of corruption in the West Africa’s educational system: manipulation of girls, favouritism when it comes to admission into higher institutions and sex for marks. Young girls often fall prey to teachers, among others “who make the education sector the worst hit by corruption. A scholarship programme has been put in place in order to protect these young girls and strengthen the educational terrain.

While the West likes to highlight examples of corruption or malpractice in Africa, in fact they can be found in every country, including the US and the UK. Nigeria as one of a number of countries developing quality assurance capacity that is instituting explicit laws against certain types of corruption, monitoring institutions and shutting them down if there is evidence of corruption. Across Africa, GUNi-Africa is building capacity, talking to officials, pressing for public awareness and ensuring that people who are caught are sanctioned and that the sanctions are publicised.

The post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination or post- gives universities a second chance to screen prospective students who have come through the national matriculation examination system. Earlier this year, the Education Minister announced that the government had lifted a ban imposed in June 2016 on the post-UTME. But the Ministerwarned against institutions charging exorbitant fees for the exam and directed the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board or JAMB to compile a list of institutions charging above NGN2,000 (US$5.50), according to a local media report.

Nigeria’s Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, or JAMB, is the latest agency to come under the spotlight in what is a national crusade to get rid of corruption in higher education. Past registrars of the agency, which is mandated to hold entrance examinations for all students into tertiary institutions, have been asked to give an account of their stewardship and how they managed the agency’s finances. The probe comes in the wake of revelations that JAMB has managed to remit to the Central Bank of Nigeria an impressive total of US$14 million – the highest annual remittance in the last 40 years.

The Federal Government says it will immediately begin to investigate universities operating multiple accounts in violation of the Treasury Single Account policy of the government in order to checkmate corrupt practices in the nation’s universities, adding that concrete efforts would be made to protect whistleblowers in the country as part of the ongoing anti- corruption crusade. The government also said it intends to find an alternative means of sourcing funds for the revitalisation of infrastructure in the universities.

The country’s anti-corruption agency is partnering with the National Universities Commission, or NUC, to sponsor 20 doctoral theses engaging with anti-corruption issues over the next 10 years and to introduce an anti-corruption course for all students at undergraduate level. The Head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said university students constituted a strategic target for anti-corruption training and awareness which is the reason for their support of anti-corruption research and scholarship and the anti-corruption course for all university undergraduates.

The Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) has accused Pro-Chancellors and Vice Chancellors of Nigerian universities of corruption and running the nation’s ivory tower aground through fraudulent activities, diversion of funds and awarding shady contracts. Rising from its National Executive Council meeting, the Union asked the President to beam his anti-corruption searchlight on the Vice Chancellors and the governing council of the universities if the anti-corruption battle is to succeed.

The Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities or AVCNU has proposed reforms to deal with the increasing number of individuals being promoted to professorships without apparently following due process.
At its recent annual conference, AVCNU took a unanimous decision to put forward a reform proposal to the National Universities Commission to arrest the trend, which is threatening the integrity of some institutions.
Some of the irregularities with regard to promotion have been leaked to the media, resulting in embarrassment for the affected universities. Since the story appeared, individuals have been emboldened to speak out about how other academics have become professors in questionable situations.